Sickening hazing rituals in junior hockey recounted in affidavits for class action lawsuit

The vast majority of males at least 30 years-of-age and older who have played hockey know that hazing has been a part of the sport for a long time - and it probably still is on some levels, even today. In fact, former CHL players Daniel Carcillo and Garrett Taylor filed a lawsuit just six months ago, claiming that the league, teams and executives knowingly allowed hazing of varying degrees to occur, despite having a responsibility to protect the young players in their charge.

Among the allegations are acts of violence, racism, discrimination, homophopic conduct, and both physical and sexual assault of underage players. On Tuesday, TSN's Rick Westhead shed a light on additional allegations from affidavits that were filed by 10 more former players, supporting what Carcillo and Taylor are alleging in vivid detail.

*Disclaimer* the content you are about to read is very disturbing. If you tend to respond adversely to vulgar, abusive or sexually explicit material, please proceed with caution or stop reading here.

According to Westhead, the allegations in those affidavits include major-junior players being sodomized with hockey sticks coated in hot/cold muscle relaxing creams, rookies forced to ejaculate on a slice of bread - with the last to do so being forced to eat it, and rookies being forced to have sex with prostitutes while teammates watched.

Unfortunately, the disturbing acts did not stop there. Players were also allegedly coerced into fighting teammates during practice. Some players were subjected to being covered in various bodily fluids and feces, and some were stripped naked and forced in groups into "sweat boxes", which are small bus restrooms.

57-year-old Doug Smith played for the Ottawa 67's in the Ontario Hockey League between 1979 and 1982. Smith is the eldest member of the group of players involved in the lawsuit. As a rookie, Smith was the subject of much abuse at the hands of his teammates during his rookie season in 1979-80.

“I was jumped in the change room. I was blindfolded. The older players held me down, tied me up and took off my clothes. I was naked," Smith wrote in his affidavit. "They shaved my genitals. They slapped me around. They threw cold water and hot water over me. They covered my genitals in Rub A535. It was terrifying and extremely painful.”

Smith continued to recount the seemingly endless list of hazing rituals performed on him by teammates, including one incident where he was taped to a grocery cart and wheeled out to centre ice in an empty arena and left there.

“They closed the doors and turned off the lights. I do not know how long I was there for. It could have been an hour, but I can't say for sure. Eventually, a trainer came out and released me. For the first three months of that year, the abuse was constant. If you couldn't take it, you were out. No exceptions. Some players left the team as a result of the hazing.”

Another player, Fred Ledlin, who played in the WHL said he experienced and witnessed several sick rituals during his time there between 1980 and 1984.

"The older players would tape you to hockey sticks with your arms and legs sticking out so you couldn't move. They would tie a skate lace to your penis and throw it over a venting pipe. They would tie the other end to a bucket. Then the older players would throw pucks into the bucket one by one to see how many pucks you could take. This was excruciatingly painful. I saw one kid take 28 pucks. I remember another taking 49 pucks while the whole team watched. I can't imagine how that player's penis was not permanently damaged. This happened on a number of the teams I played on. The coaches all knew this stuff was going on. A lot of it happened on the bus. Everybody in the league knew it was going on.”

These are just stories of those who came forward. Beyond that threshold lie hundreds upon hundreds, maybe even thousands of young players who were forced to endure - and then eventually perpetrate - these types of hazing rituals. Looking past the fact that acts of hazing of this nature should never have occurred in the first place, it's certainly long overdue that it's finally being addressed.

You can read Westhead's full story here.

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